At Fort Eustis, new general David G. Perkins looks to the future

Gen. David G. Perkins takes over at Training and Doctrine Command headquarters

Gen. David G. Perkins took the reins of the Army Training and Doctrine Command… (Judith Lowery, Daily Press )

March 14, 2014|By Hugh Lessig, hlessig@dailypress.com

He has just taken over a nationwide organization that faces deep budget cuts and stands to lose thousands of people. He doesn't get a say in what happens.

But he does have a job: Train the organization to be more flexible, nimble and respond to a wider range of needs, even with fewer resources. Success or failure will not be measured in profits, but in lives saved — or lost.

Meet Gen. David G. Perkins, the Army's newest four-star general who on Friday took over at Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis. Perkins is charged with reshaping a fighting force that is destined to shrink after 13 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but must remain poised to respond to crises around the globe.

Perkins is perhaps best known for his leadership during a quick, decisive strike into downtown Baghdad in 2003, later chronicled in the book "Thunder Run," by Los Angeles Times reporter David Zucchino.

In Newport News, he will face a different sort of drama: How to train soldiers and strategize for future conflicts with far fewer resources than his predecessors.

Today, the Army has about 520,000 active-duty soldiers, which it had planned to reduce to 490,000. But because of tight budgets, the new plan announced last month calls for an Army in the 440,000 to 450,000 range. If budget cuts under sequestration return in 2016, the active-duty ranks would be pared down to 420,000.

Perkins said he's certain of one thing: the future is unpredictable, and the Army doesn't have the luxury of preparing to fight the previous war.

"You need a broad range of capabilities," he said. "It's not a one-trick pony. It has to be able to do everything. Because when the nation calls, the Army can't say, 'I don't do that.'"

The Army has been going through drawdowns since the end of the Revolutionary War, he noted. The key is to reduce budgets without eroding capability.

Military leaders have testified before Congress about the danger of another post-Vietnam-like drawdown that left the military with dwindling resources and outdated equipment.

Perkins said there are lessons to be learned from history.

"You have to avoid being captive to the past," he said. "You have to be informed by the past. You have to avoid the tendency to say, we're going to do Afghanistan next time, but we're going to do it better. Don't build the Army to do only one thing."

Planning for enemies isn't his only task. Perkins must reshape the Army from within, and that includes the continuing mission to integrate women soldiers into combat roles.

Last month, the Associated Press reported preliminary results of an Army survey that revealed less than 8 percent of Army women who responded said they wanted a combat job, and that both men and women profess to being nervous about females in combat, but are determined to do it fairly.

Perkins replaces Gen. Robert W. Cone, who began many of the tasks that Perkins will face, including the women-in-combat initiative. The formal transfer of authority took place during a ceremony inside Jacobs Theater. It featured the traditional transfer of the flag from one general to the next. Outside, Army howitzers offered a thunderous salute.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, who hosted Friday's ceremony, called Cone "a warrior scholar" who presided over a rewrite of Army doctrine and forged alliances across the service during his tenure. Cone took command of TRADOC in April 2011. He will retire on March 17 in a ceremony at Fort Myers, Va., ending his 34-year career.

In his departing remarks, Cone said the Army entrusts far more to TRADOC than outsiders realize. Ticking off a list of missions, he joked: "If I knew three years ago the scope of what I was getting myself into, maybe I would have been a little bit more worried about taking the job."

What is TRADOC?

The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command is headquartered at Fort Eustis. It was created in 1973 and is responsible for recruiting and training soldiers, developing leaders and guiding the Army's future through formal doctrine. It operates 32 schools organized under eight "Centers of Excellence."

The outgoing commander, Gen. David Cone, was preceded by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, who headed TRADOC when it was located at Fort Monroe in Hampton. Dempsey is now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.